review by SOMMET AUTO
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ENGINE
Capacity (cc)
: 1,598 cm3
Type
: Inline-4, 16V DOHC (D16DTH)
Bore x Stroke (mm)
: 79.7 / 80.1 (almost square)
Maximum power
: 134 bhp @ 3,500 ~ 4,000 RPM
Maximum torque
: 320 N·m @ 2,000 ~ 2,250 RPM
Compression ratio
: 16.0 : 1
Aspiration
: Turbo-charged
Synchronisation
: Timing Chain
Location
: Front
Mounting
: Transverse
Emission
: Euro 6d-TEMP with AdBlue
DRIVETRAIN
Type
: 6-Speed automatic + Torque converter (6T45)
Driven axle
: Front
SUSPENSION
Front
: MacPherson Struts + Anti-Roll Bar
Rear
: Deformable torsion beam
PERFORMANCE
Top speed (km/hr)
: 207 km/h
0-100 km/hr (sec)
: 10.2 s
BRAKES
Front
: Ventilated Solid Disc
Rear
: Solid Disc
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTS
L x W x H (mm)
: 4,702 x 1,809 x 1,510
Wheel base (mm)
: 2,662
Track width front / rear (mm)
: 1,544 / 1,558
Min. kerb-to-kerb turning circle (m)
: 11.05
Ground clearance (mm)
: 145
Wheels & rim Size
: 5×105 ; 7Jx16 ET41
Tyres size
: 205/55R16
DIN kerb weight (kg)
: 1,381
Gross weight (kg)
: 2,000
Boot space (Litres)
: 540 / 1,630 (rear seats folded)
PROPELLANT & EFFICIENCY
Type
: Diesel
Tank capacity (litres)
: 38
Urban cycle (km/L)
: 17.2
Extra urban cycle (km/L)
: 25.6
Combined cycle (km/L)
: 21.7
Reviewed in October 2020.
Brief car Status : 82,000 km travelled with ~80% remaining tyre threads on budget tyres.
Opel Astra Sports Tourer, which we prefer to call it plainly as “estate” given we can’t quite agree to the the ‘sports’ part. Germany is one of the largest if not the largest manufacturer of estate cars and Opel having its German root couldn’t possibly miss this out.
DESIGN
Overall design is smart and mature, with slightly sloping roof lines and integrated roof rack adds a smooth flow to the design.
Black fish scale design plastic and 2 c-shaped chrome stripes flanking the make’s emblem makes up the grille design, a pity that the grille design could have been bolder and in-your-face to suit the otherwise muscular lines. Halogen reflector-type head and front fog lamps don’t compliment well aesthetically with the LED Daytime Running Light.
Side profile spots an extremely pronounced waistline shoulder line1crease from the front rather flat wheel arches to the tail lamp, cutting straight through the centre of the chunky and robust door handles. Another set of creases at the bottom of the doors give a more 3-dimensional look. Chrome strip running across the upper perimeter of the windows from the A-pillars does slopes down somewhat unnaturally to meet with the rear windscreen.
Wheels size are a tad small for the estate’s stature, especially so for the rear given the large area of body panel.
Rear profile has a sloping rear windscreen and a flat boot lid gives an athletic guise, helped also by the prominent protrusion of the rear bumper which we are quite fond of.
INTERIOR
Soft touch material covers just the top portion of the dashboard, which is quite standard in this segment of cars, hard plastics are used extensively in other areas of the cabin and doesn’t feel as quality as the ones like the Honda Vezel or Kia Cerato we tested, they even feel somewhat hollow beyond the surface. The silver plastic trims do liven up the cabin a little, away from the typical “cold” continental style.
Bean-shaped instrument panel looks very similar to that of the Opel Mokka X in layout only with chrome accents around the individual tachometer & speedometer instead of being on instrument panel’s perimeter, which look more modern here in the Astra. The centre digital display and the coolant temperature & level level dials are largely similar to its Crossover sibling – easy to read.
Steering wheel has nicer design with a smaller centre hub instead of a pulling-a-long-face design on some of the earlier Opel’s models and now with overall improved girth and feel. Steering wheel controls are available with cruise control settings on the left and infotainment with phone controls on the right.
Vertical centre console adopts a rather safe design with central air vents lined up to the sides of the infotainment touch screen, screen looks small with large bezel and can look faded under strong sunlight. Touch sensitivity and usability is also decent.
Climate controls are situated lower down and are blessed with physical buttons and dials where changes in settings will reflect on the infotainment touch screen which can reduce the time for driver taking their eyes off the road. The temperature dials have an individual digital display of the set temperature right in the centre, a nice touch there and is quite Audi-ish, isn’t it?
Overall all buttons and dials are made quite small marginally reducing the ease of use but should overcome over time. Lastly an open rectangular compartment before reaching a set of buttons for drive settings like traction controls, auto start-stop, lane keeping, etc. just before the gear lever.
Gear lever has a cheap plastic-catch kind of elastic sensation when in operation, fails in providing any form of tactile precision.
Floor mount centre console spots a traditional handbrake lever on the driver side with a pair of longitudinally placed cup holder and a spring-cover 12 V socket on its side. Flip open the centre arm rest reveals an average size compartment.
Handbrake release button on the end of the lever is undeniably a chrome-plated hollow plastic-like material with lackluster fit. Centre arm rest is also a tad too short for real elbow comfort.
Front seats are getting mixed reviews from driver and passenger. Passenger find the vertical axis of the seat feels slightly tilted to the left which is somewhat “unbalance” (can’t be sure if it’s a singled out case though, we hope it is), support although is good but is too stiff to be considered comfortable. The driver has a radically different perspective where lateral supports on both back rest and seat per se are perfectly bolstered, entire seat cushion is on the firmer side but not stiff and provides excellent support. You will have to try for yourself which category to really love them or not. Back inclination angle for both the front seats are adjusted by a turn knob on the outer side of the seats, which can take forever to reach the lower or upper ends but having said that, no other seats adjustments can get as precise an angle as these; if you are that particular that is.
Outer most rear seats are slightly indented providing overall excellent support but doesn’t really excel in the creature comfort department. Knee rooms are mega; with an average height front passenger adjusted to their comfortable setting and not having to compromise the rear passenger for knee room. Foot wells are also generous with only a small hump from transmission tunnel. A pity that there are no dedicated air vents for the rear passengers given the large cabin, thankfully the air conditioning system seems quite effective. There are also no centre armrest for the rear passengers.
Doors are mostly finished in hard plastics, even the top of the side panel except the elbow rest which is of softer cloth-like material, nothing near plush. Wing mirrors control on the driver side are slightly obstructed by the sturdy door pull handle though, doors unlock lever feel solidly metallic but the shallow depth of its recess and smooth curvy design of the lever makes slipping off the fingertips a regular occurrence. Door bins size are considered average but will fit most 500 ml bottles which is important given the lack of cup holder for the rear passengers.
Driver’s door 
Rear right passenger’s door
Boot space is always the holy grail reason why buyers even look for estate cars, it has the exact same published boot capacity as the resident’s W212 E-class and that’s if you just consider filling the boot up to the parcel shelf, retracting or removing the parcel shelf possibly reveal another, undocumented, 30% more space at the sacrifice of rear view visibility of course. Lowering the rear seats via lever at the each side of the boot respectively in a 60/40 fashion expands the loading area to a cavernous 1,630 litres of loading space. Good to note that the rear seats offer flexibility for a 40/20/40 folding arrangement too.
DRIVING & PERFORMANCE
Thus far if seemingly short-changing of cabin quality cast doubts on even consider this car, it’s time to put an end when the driving starts and we are excited to write on!
– paragraph added 08 November 2020
Driving position is slightly lackluster though, with the test driver tends to sit low while maintaining unobstructed view of the instrument panel, the steering wheel position is a tad high for comfort which strains the shoulders on longer journey on a 3-9 o’clock grip positioning; and made worse with the indicating stalk mounted quite high, much like the W212 pre-facelift E-class having it mounted too low at the almost same degree.
Engine is bloody brilliant!! It’s supposed to be a very similar unit to the Mokka X but felt worlds apart (we could vaguely attribute to the mileage done and service history), power band in the Mokka is somewhat narrow but this Astra Sports Tourer has not once felt underwhelming from the 80 kilometres route and 2 hours drive although it does exhibit a fair bit of turbo lag in low speed and high load situations. Sensible overtaking at expressway speed doesn’t even need additional input from the transmission when the pull from the powertrain, although not neck breaking, is so very satisfying; pushing the car in a linear yet eager manner, making overtake in comfort and relative pace this car’s forte.
Transmission feels a little rough in the first 2~3 gears but it does shift quickly, we should be looking at around 45 km/h with generally light throttle input by the time the transmission gets in 4th and we are mostly on par or ahead of most traffic by that time. 4th gear onwards is also where the best part starts, the gratifying linear acceleration gets even more prominent – picture yourself on an slip road going into the expressway on 4th gear and starts to gently accelerate, before you realised it you could likely be breeching legal speed limits by the time you check back your speedometer on the overtaking lane.
Stability is fantastic though steering is a little light on expressway even with uneven tyre pressure at 330kPA and one with 230kPA; despite the deranged tyre pressures it actually still manages to handle well. We are really impressed!
Undulations are coped in a very mature manner; comfortable, pliant, and still able to feel slight stiffness in its setup to feel confident. Chassis seems to be very well sorted too, very planted and very assuring on undulating bends.
Overall NVH is another star of the car – road noise intrusion even with fitted budget tyres is good, fit a set of better rubber and we are sure that it might just be be segment leading! Insulation from engine is unlike that of the Mokka X which was atrocious, in this Astra Sports Tourer, as much as there are still the diesel rattles on the outside, we barely hear anything from the engine from within the cabin at low to medium load, it is impressive. Wind noise is almost non-existence at local legal speed, overall refinement in this segment and price point is impeccable.
Rear view mirror is a tad small for its size, both height and width span. Blind spots are minimum on the front half of the car attributing to thin A-pillars and existence of quarter lights; rear half also has quarter lights which minimise blind spots, considering the size of the car, it is good.
RIDE & HANDLING
Steering response not exactly fast but bear in mind the tyres fitted and the pre-adjusted tyre pressure. A pity that after the tyre pressure adjustment, we don’t have a lot more time to re-test this on expressway but city driving characteristic did improve with keener steering response and whole setup of suspension-chassis gets mellowed down, feeling slightly more controlled.
Body roll is acceptable, even accelerating in corners; a little roll and understeer does come in a earlier than we would liked but encroach in a very progressive manner, limit of adhesion breaks quite early even before the apex, but again, likely it’s the tyres than the car per se.
Compression is mostly comfortable on low speed humps and getting on speed with faster directional change doesn’t feel unsettled. Rebound is equally competent, just a little on the softer side. It generally has a comfort-biased setup.
Steering feedback is quite vague though, accuracy can also be improved but honestly it can’t be branded as bad, just not the sporty type enthusiast drivers might be looking for.
COST AND OWNERSHIP
Fuel efficiency wasn’t up to expectation given the remarkable numbers on the Mokka X, “merely” getting about 17.2 km/L throughout our carriage, which is just average for diesel engines of this size.
This Astra Sports Tourer 1.6 CDTi is no longer available for sale as new which only existed on our shore for a period of less than 2 years or so until early 2020. We should be looking at around $7,800 annual depreciation for pre-owned units which is also average around cars in this segment regardless of propellant type.
Long term fuel savings can be very significant for high mileage drivers comparing to purely petrol propelled cars in this segment, but do take into consideration that some diesels have their own set of common issues with DPF and injectors which aren’t exactly cheap parts to replace. Diesel road tax surcharge should to be considered too, all-in-all we think it should be still be cheaper to own but with all the disadvantages against diesels recent years, only that the savings may not be as huge as before.
VERDICT
We have a soft spot for estate cars and diesels, but putting all biases at bay and reviewing objectively, we still think this is a sensational choice! Cabin quality is a tad disappointing but not much worse than cars in this segment; with mesmerising ride refinement, strong powertrain, excellent NVH, wonderful seats, and outstanding driving manners, this is one of the best cars we have driven and that’s a big claim!
Recently the Kia Cerato K3 which took the crown of our best overall car, it was unfortunately short-lived, now claimed by this Opel Astra Sports Tourer. Refinement is almost Audi-like, price of a C-segment Asian make. As far as possible, get the unit with LED matrix headlight, and brighter body colours to really bring out the lines and design.
– added 08 November 2020
One thing that may put buyers off and doesn’t agree with our crowning of this Opel is perhaps the built quality, the price point suggest better interior quality that it has, a pity.
There are no good or bad cars to us – the different makes and models are there to suit people of different needs, budgets, lifestyles, and egos.
In the event you are keen in looking to get this car, or any car for that matter, we will gladly assist you in finding the best possible unit. Do look us up at Sommet Auto.
Let us know in comments how you think of our reviews and anywhere you would like us to put more emphasis on in our future reviews.
EDITS & CORRECTIONS
18 September 2021
– Replace spider chart.
28 September 2021
1 – ‘Waistline’ changed to ‘shoulder line’; ‘waistline’ (or ‘belt-line’) is the line defining the lower part of glass windows/windscreen meet the side body panels. Sommet Auto apologise for any confusion caused.
Test Drives SG 
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